Saturday, August 13, 2016

Late to the Instant Pot Party

I saw that the Instant Pot 6-in-1 was 30% off on Amazon, so I asked for input on FB and was amazed at how much positive feedback my friends had. No one had anything bad to say about it, so I placed my order.

For those who are not familiar with this appliance, you can use it to saute and brown, and it also is a pressure cooker, rice cooker, slow cooker, steamer, and warmer. I have 2 Fagor stove top pressure cookers, as well as cookware and/or appliances to handle everything else, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy the Instant Pot. But we recently replaced our electric coil stove which wasn't ideal for pressure cooking, with a glass cook top which is even worse for pressure cooking because the cooking surface doesn't change temperature quickly. Also, babysitting a pressure cooker was kind of annoying--is it too hot, is it too cool, did it lose pressure, should I add an extra minute or two, etc., etc.. I know, it all sounds pretty trivial. But automating pressure cooking, replacing the rice cooker that has a plastic coated insert, and getting a larger slow cooker were all positives.

It arrived today. The unit is a little bigger than our rice cooker, which is what I expected. The cooking vessel is stainless steel, so that's a plus.

I made Broccoli Soup using this recipe, omitting the cream and cheese and adding celery. It took longer to chop the vegetables and blend it than the 5 minutes it took to cook. So far, so good. My friends were right on the money.